Chief: No serious problem with gangs

NORWALK -- Two recent shootings -- including a brazen midday murder on a busy city street Monday -- do not represent an upsurge in gang violence, Police Chief Harry Rilling said yesterday.

"We don't have a rampant gang problem in the city of Norwalk. Gangs are not roaming the streets wreaking havoc on the community," Rilling said.

The chief's comments follow a Cablevision News 12 interview taped Thursday, in which Capt. John Cashin said Monday's fatal shooting of 17-year-old Thounsa Addison Jr. "seems to have been a tragic example of what can happen -- young people are in gangs."

The incident may have led to the silencing of Cashin, a 23-year veteran of the force.

When asked by The Advocate about the Addison murder yesterday, a day after the News 12 interview, Cashin, who comments regularly on police cases, said he was unable to provide information to the media. He said all further inquiries would have to go through the department's spokesman, Lt. Peter Randall.

Cashin had told News 12 he based his opinion on "backdoor information" police received over the past few days from young people and parents indicating the shooting was gang-related.

Cashin went on to say gang activity was "lately worse," guns on the street "have become a real problem" and local street gangs called the West Siders, PCC and the Black Mobb are in Brien McMahon and Norwalk high schools.

Yesterday, Rilling declined to publicly comment on Cashin's interview, but said that gangs were not in the high schools.


He called groups of youths involved in criminal activity "imitation gangs, not highly organized criminal enterprises."

High school students, Rilling said, are not bringing guns and knives to school and the schools remain the safest places in the city for young people.

A police scanner broadcast the morning after Addison was killed reported that some young people at Brien McMahon were flashing gang signs and there was concern that those individuals would go to Norwalk High.

Norwalk doesn't have more youth crime than other cities that, like Norwalk, have a large population of young people ages 12 to 23, Rilling said.

"We need to put this in proper perspective," Rilling said. "It is a concern to us any time we have things like this happening. . . . We are not seeing random acts of violence perpetrated on unsuspecting citizens."

On Wednesday, Cashin said Addison's death may be connected to a Jan. 4 drive-by shooting that injured a city teenager on West Main Street, a short distance from Addison's home. Police are investigating whether Addison is linked to the crime.

Addison's family agreed that the fatal shooting was probably made in retaliation for the Jan. 4 incident.